Russia invading Ukraine (NEWS/UPDATES)

[smoker]

Why?

If it came to war with Russia, he'd probably find himself under surveillance or taken into protective custody for his pro-Putin views.

 

[Hair Flick]

No you f***ing aren't you fanny. You'll be shitting through the eye of a needle 2 mins after it starts man.

That’s Novichok for you.

 

[Salem-Hillbilly]

RT not leading with their Ukraine shitshow.
Canadian Truckers and Australian nurses are prioritised.

Putin is one of the most corrupt leaders of the world. How much is the estimated amount he's siphoned off - 10bn?

I found his declaration as self elected "Overlord" absolutely laughable.

Got to be over that, his mouldy black sea palace was over £1 Billion

 

[Mackem Mad]

I think that's part of it, he wants to make a major nationalistic statement defending Mother Russia but Russia will not be surrounded. They just won't be. They have evolved to be quite the paranoid nation and Putin will culturally tap into that. And with a very pro Russian presence in the Ukraine it's brewing up to become quite the perfect storm. There's a mix of cultural and nationalistic forces at play which is never good.

Russians always want to be strrrong. Not exactly the master race...more the dominant race. That said if you're in trouble the common Russian will share his last sip of vodka with you.

They aren’t a “race”.They don’t even all have the same ethnicity.

Don’t know much about this, what does the average joe Russian think about it all ?

The media coverage of that is zero.

No you f***ing aren't you fanny. You'll be shitting through the eye of a needle 2 mins after it starts man.

I think we all will be.

Some polling by Levada in Russia and trusted by Harvard's Belfer Centre

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Those polls, being as old as some of the posters on here, tell us nothing about the immediate situation.

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Fighter jet Bojo on the first line of defence then

He’s full of shit and so,probably, are his pants.

 

[englishman abroad]

Chris Murhpy is on the senate intelligence committee, worth a watch

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[FootballFan]

Putin would be mentally deranged to invade the Ukraine, cannot see it happening at all.

 

[stan the man]

Only one Nation wants Russia to invade Ukraine..... the good old USA !!
War mongering, profiteers $$$.... there not in anyone's backyard enough currently and billions of dollars or War machinery is sitting idle

 

[safcforever]

The problem is escalation. This is a non NATO country. Park eg. UK forces in there & they get hit, then what? Few UK cruise missiles into Russia to take out the forces that hit em?
Then what? They retaliate & take eg. Akrotiri air base out?
Then what? USA back us up & take out air base that launched the attack.
2-3 days in & it's WW3 man.

I do see the problem. We could easily be accused of causing it. He’s allowed to move around his county and like I said can easily collapse the whole thing and just pretend it was an exercise.
Then we look stupid by enforcing sanctions for no reason etc

It’s a fine line

 

[stan the man]

35 years on .....song for all times

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[APH]

Wonder where these two B52s are off to?

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[forever changes]

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Fighter jet Bojo on the first line of defence then

Is he still lodged in there ?

 

[Arfa Sleep]

Wonder where these two B52s are off to?

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Straight to Moscow, taking the fight to Putin.

Is he still lodged in there ?

Just eject Boris.

 

[parm]

Would never happen but in that scenario we would all be fucked anyway.

Worth remembering though that the US alone spends 45x what Russia does on military every year… and that’s without including the rest of NATO and Japan. They wouldn’t stand a chance in a conventional war against the West but again it would never happen

but when china step in the games changed

 

[Zidane]

It won't be easy for NATO to avoid getting involved when 24 hours news around the world is showing dead children so there is always potential for escalation.

Personally, I think he's is literally crazy if he invades. Unless its unbelievably clean in terms of civilian casualties he's going to go down in history as some kind of madman.

I still think its a failed bluff myself. Threaten war, a weakened western alliance from Brexit etc etc etc all shit themselves and he gets a great deal. Hero to the drunken population.
Now he's not getting what he wants he can't stand down without looking like a the massive loser he is.

However, as I've said before, NATO need to somehow open an exit for him to gracefully leave the corner he's now backed into so that invading is not the only way out.

 

[r@mside]

Those polls, being as old as some of the posters on here, tell us nothing about the immediate situation.

Less than a year old, speak for yourself.

 

[Scotty]

Would never happen but in that scenario we would all be fucked anyway.

Worth remembering though that the US alone spends 45x what Russia does on military every year… and that’s without including the rest of NATO and Japan. They wouldn’t stand a chance in a conventional war against the West but again it would never happen

i really wish people would stop with the US spends xxx times more than Russia, China, whoever therefore it'll be a curbstomp

they spend vastly more than everyone else because R&D costs are huge, personnel costs are massive and equipment costs are probably 2-3 times what Russia, etc would be

or to put it another way - Russian defence spending is approx £61B, UK defence spending is approx £59B - does anyone here really think our armed forces and Russias are in anyway comparable??

 

[Martin F]

Wonder where these two B52s are off to?

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Both on training flights by the look of it!

 

[Arfa Sleep]

i really wish people would stop with the US spends xxx times more than Russia, China, whoever therefore it'll be a curbstomp

they spend vastly more than everyone else because R&D costs are huge, personnel costs are massive and equipment costs are probably 2-3 times what Russia, etc would be

or to put it another way - Russian defence spending is approx £61B, UK defence spending is approx £59B - does anyone here really think our armed forces and Russias are in anyway comparable??

The Russians are definitely underestimated by some, fortunately not by those actually involved.

 

[MonkeyLove]

i really wish people would stop with the US spends xxx times more than Russia, China, whoever therefore it'll be a curbstomp

they spend vastly more than everyone else because R&D costs are huge, personnel costs are massive and equipment costs are probably 2-3 times what Russia, etc would be

or to put it another way - Russian defence spending is approx £61B, UK defence spending is approx £59B - does anyone here really think our armed forces and Russias are in anyway comparable??

Quality vs quantity. In numbers no but in technology we are streets ahead. It’s not just what we spend but our alliances with the US and Europe that means our R and D costs are also shared.

The most advanced fighter jet in the World is the F35 lightning. The Russians don’t have anything close and what they did develop was a cheap alternative.

The Russians don’t have anything near our aircraft carrier strike group capabilities.

They don’t have anything near our wider naval capabilities. The Type 45 is the most advanced warship ever produced.

They have significant numbers of equipment and do have good missile capabilities particularly with their hypersonic weapon development.

But we are never going to fight a ground war with Russia so really hard power is projected by naval and air forces. Both of which us and the US have what is generally acknowledged to be the best in the World. Russia despite their modernisation programme is not close.

Outside of nuclear weapons could Russia do any damage to the US or it’s mainland. Maybe only by attacking it’s close proximity overseas bases. The US on the other hand could cause untold damage to Russia via its forward operating bases and naval and air power.

It will never happen so it’s a pointless argument. But I don’t think any expert would say Russia is even close to the capabilities the West have where it matters

 

[r@mside]

Chris Murhpy is on the senate intelligence committee, worth a watch

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Anyone trying to explain Ukraine in 3 minutes isn't going to get close to giving you all the pertinent facts and complexities, let alone a man who was involved with some of Ukraine's far right when "something happened in 2013"

Murphy accompanied John McCain there in 2013 which prompted this coverage from CH4.

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In that tweet, Murphy says Russia (by which he means Yanukovych's police) began firing on the protesters but there's loads of evidence to show the shooting started from the offices of one of those far right groups.

Don't take this as an accusation of US directing events, but we should have learned from previous attempts at using proxies to forward our geopolitical goals that a lot of these groups aren't on our side (pro democracy, human rights etc) and simply use us for their own ends. See the various jihadist groups in Syria, Libya and Iraq for other recent examples.